microsoft

Today’s going to be rough for everyone, so why not block out the horror of your weird uncle with some classic gaming? Solitaire, the world’s loneliest card adventure, has always been better on the computer, and now Microsoft has delivered a holiday treat a few months early.

Also, starting today, you download Microsoft’s classic “Microsoft Solitaire Collection" for iOS and Android, according to The Verge. The game, which has been on Window for more than 25 years, includes Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid, and Tripeaks. Best of all, it’s free.There’s a “Premium Edition” that costs $1.99 a month and includes an ad-free version along with daily challenges and game boosts. But for those strapped for cash, this is the perfect way to ignore your family.

Microsoft tries too hard--yet again--in their new Surface Pro 4 ad geared ENTIRELY toward Hipster Millennials. The singing narrator wears a fedora and points out all the ways a Hipster Surface user can be productive. Mostly yawn-inducing, the one highlight is the inexplicably NIGHTMARE-INDUCING "hat for your cat" visual near the beginning:

We don't know what the hell you were thinking, Microsoft, but we want to see MORE of nightmare cat.

A few days after Microsoft released Windows 10 to the public last year, Teri Goldstein’s computer started trying to download and install the new operating system.

The update, which she says she didn’t authorize, failed. Instead, the computer she uses to run her Sausalito, Calif., travel-agency business slowed to a crawl. It would crash, she says, and be unusable for days at a time.

“I had never heard of Windows 10,” Goldstein said. “Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update.”

When outreach to Microsoft’s customer support didn’t fix the issue, Goldstein took the software giant to court, seeking compensation for lost wages and the cost of a new computer.

The latest advancement of artificial intelligence is a teen chatbot made by Microsoft. Her(?) name is Tay and she/it has been launched on Kik, GroupMe and Twitter so far. And like any teen, she has plans to start posting on Snapchat also. According to the website about Tay, she's been created by "by mining relevant public data and by using AI and editorial developed by a staff including improvisational comedians".

The goal is apparently to continue to learn about people age 18-24 and how they communicate. She's definitely learning, and she's even getting a little saucy with her replies.

Microsoft held an imaginatively-named Windows 10 Devices event in New York Oct. 6. While they showed off some impressive new phones, a new Surface and a new Surface laptop, we were most interested in seeing new Hololens stuff.

We were super-impressed with the E3 Minecraft demo and have been salivating for more mind blowingness from the augmented reality helmet.

During today's event, they introduced Project X Ray and for the first time, let us see a wearable 'hologram'.

That's when the robots started bursting through the walls.

As with the Minecraft demo, we find this type of interactivity with the surrounding environment super fascinating.

Unfortunately, it's going to come at a price.

Microsoft set a developer kit price at $3,000, shipping in the first quarter of next year.

RoomAlive is a proof-of-concept prototype that transforms any room into an immersive, augmented entertainment experience. Our system enables new interactive projection mapping experiences that dynamically adapts content to any room. Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge and steer projected content that seamlessly co-exists with their existing physical environment. The basic building blocks of RoomAlive are projector-depth camera units, which can be combined through a scalable, distributed framework. The projector-depth camera units are individually auto-calibrating, self-localizing, and create a unified model of the room with no user intervention. We investigate the design space of gaming experiences that are possible with RoomAlive and explore methods for dynamically mapping content based on room layout and user position. Finally we showcase four experience prototypes that demonstrate the novel interactive experiences that are possible with RoomAlive and discuss the design challenges of adapting any game to any room.

I don't see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it's fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don't make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don't try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it's changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It's certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.

As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I'll probably abandon it immediately.

Meanwhile, Microsoft celebrates their huge acquisition in the video above.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Satya Nadella as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors effective immediately. Nadella previously held the position of Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group.

"During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella," said Bill Gates, Microsoft's Founder and Member of the Board of Directors. "Satya is a proven leader with hard-core engineering skills, business vision and the ability to bring people together. His vision for how technology will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Microsoft needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth."

Since joining the company in 1992, Nadella has spearheaded major strategy and technical shifts across the company's portfolio of products and services, most notably the company's move to the cloud and the development of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world supporting Bing, Xbox, Office and other services. During his tenure overseeing Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, the division outperformed the market and took share from competitors.

Microsoft is developing a bra designed to help women with both their emotional and physical health. The sensors inside it detect heart rate, sweat, and stress levels which indicate the potential for over-eating. The bra can also connect to your smart phone to send you a "mood-triggered eating alert" as well as give you suggestions on how to redirect your brain to do something else.

The idea of a 'smart undergarment' has been marketed to women because of research that says they are most likely to emotionally over-eat. The current prototypes are not perfect; the battery life only lasts 3 to 4 hours.

Microsoft just can't seem to catch a break this year. Already up against a tough crowd following the lukewarm reception of the XBox One unveiling, the latest strike against the company comes from yesterday's demo match of Killer Instinct, an upcoming reboot of the 1994 fighting arcade game, during which the male presenter (and the producer of the game) told his struggling female colleague and co-host to "just let it happen, it'll be all over soon." For more deets, check out Know Your Meme's coverage of E3 2013.